Faction power ranking

[BasiC]

Any old timers who play really well wanna chime in and tell us what you think the faction power rankings are?

[Seswatha]

Idk If I play really well but I can beat endless AI without much effort with any faction. I don't play much MP. Does that count)?

For me it's hard to rank them 1 to 9, and there are circumstances where most faction can shine, but I can give general power ratings/tiers.

Very strong - RIftborn, Vodyani, Vaulters

Just strong - Sophon, Craver (craver might go up a tier in MP)

Ok - UE (I consider it bit weaker than the 2 above and pretty vanilla overall)

Kinda sucks - Lumeris (they used to be top tier but all stuff that made them good was nerfed hard). They still have some things going for them like decent earlygame momentum (not on par with craver of course), so I wouldn't consider them completely terrible.

Suck badly - Unfallen, Horatio. Both start coming into their own in the lategame, especially Unfallen with a switch to republic and a lot of peace/alliance treaties and coop protocols (I had a game where I was making 100K science at the end), problem is it's turn 100+ on normal speed, top factions are winning by now. Their start is pretty slow and random.

[Varivox]

No MP experience for me either.

I'd agree with Demiurg for the most part. Maybe move the vaulters down a notch.

Horatio though, can be either really good or really bad. They are a late game faction, but they also require access to foreign population types, which isn't manageable by the player. If you luck out and find some good +Production minor civs early on, they can do fairly well, but that is out of their control. However, by the time you get to the end game, they've spliced so many populations that they can easily get out of hand, even with their other drawbacks (+25% ship industry cost). Horatio can either be god tier or garbage or anything in between imo. High risk, high reward.

[ElPrezCBF]

Just a veteran here not expert. For objectivity, factions' performance should be assessed in the context of how well the AI, not human player, can handle them.

Horatio is among the weakest because the AI is less adept at handling the more extreme strategy required of this faction. I've yet to see them steamroll late game in the hands of the AI and put them in the same group as Cravers and Unfallen in weakness. And even if they manage to create the "perfect" pop late game, it doesn't really matter by then when other factions can simply gain massive bonuses through advanced late game improvements and legendary buildings. Splicing also doesn't give the full trait bonus of the spliced pop. For example, an unspliced pop that gives +5 approval per hot planet would only give +1 when spliced with Horatio, which is a very small return for your assimilation efforts and sacrificing a minor pop.

For strongest, I'd say UE and Riftborn, followed by Sophons and Lumeris. Lumeris may not be the strongest but if allowed to make lots of money, could be the most resilient because they can simply colonize anywhere, making them hard to wipe out completely. This is just from my experience and yours may be different depending on your settings.

[DimensionHatross]

Even though I have a bit of experince with the game, it's nothing compared to others and I still feel as though I'm deciding where the empires lie relative to each other.

Having said that, for me, the slow starters like Unfallen and Vodyani can be crippled by system spawn (no great vine/outpost targets, no factions to leach) which is bad enough, but both can quickly lose entire systems due to their mechanics- either losing your ark to an attacking fleet or being forced to retreat , or having a weak spot in the vine network exploited and unentwining your systems. I still think they can be strong later on but it's the getting there that can be tough.

Cravers I'd say are similar in that what makes them strong can also hinder them. One thing in the Cravers' favour though is that they're very strong early so early aggression and expansion is fairly easy, but once again, if they run into strong resistance and can't expand, they're in big trouble.


I always feel as though UE and Riftborn are very strong. Being able to have a second buyout function or not having to worry about food at all are really handy tools and can make them both super-flexible (particulary UE). The Riftborn buffs/debuffs are very nice. I actually think the Vaulters would be up there as well. Portals are the ultimate defensive tool, meaning you can potentially spend less on military and more on getting a tech/system advantage. I find these 3 very resillient to early pressure so they're generally more free to dictate the flow of a game.

I kind of feel as though UE would sit at the top of my list if I had to choose though. Heavy industrial foundation into war happy killing machine that expands indefinitely is pretty terrifying imo.

I think Sophons can be strong if left alone to make the most of their science but I do feel as though they succumb to early pressure if not prepared, and if they are prepared they haven't made a lot of use out their tree bonuses. I still like them though. Very adaptable and powerful if they can get get the freedom to tech up.

Lumeris I think can be an absolute monster if they can get their empire running as they can be anywhere they want to be, on any system that suits. Good vs passive starting factions and can ramp up hard if left alone. Pretty good vs aggressive also since they have a lot of buyout/upgrade potential with their dust production.

Horatio I think are somewhere near the bottom. I love the idea of their super-civillians but it can be tricky making it work. As twel70 said, it can be a bit underwhelming of an affinity, and when you compare it to things like portals or influence buyouts, the impact of splicing is not always immediate or large enough to swing important moments in the game. Good macro faction but needs more freedom than they'd get to make it work more often than not I think.

Anyway, just my opinions, but I will say it's nice that different players are able to get different results out of the factions.